Day 2 with the Boys

Trying to catch up, I really am.

We went to the orphanage (or detsky dom) on Sunday, and had a repeat of our playdate from the day before. More hide and seek, more samolyat.

We also played "hokey pokey" and "duck, duck, goose". Duck, Duck, Goose is an especially big hit.

We got to see a bit more of the orphanage as we went to the sleeping house. We did not get to see their bedrooms, but did see someone's room. It is about 7' x 7' and has 2 very small beds in it, maybe 4' long.

The building is old, but they seem to do their best to keep it clean and in good repair. The floors are very worn and badly need some stain and polyurethane. They are bare, grey wood. The walls are clean and have been painted many times. I think the paint is literally about an inch thick in some places. Kind of like Queen Elizabeth's makeup. Most paint is institutional green.

Like most places in Ukraine, the lights are out unless the room is in use, and often out even then. They do not waste electricity. Often times in a restaurant the room is totally dark when we arrive, then a few lights are turned on for our benefit. I think they turn on the heat then too. The waitresses always look cold.

One high compliment I must pay is to whomever teaches the children art. There is a lot of student art on the walls and some is very good. There are lots of letters to Father Frost (who brings toys, as opposed to Santa Claus who is just St. Nicholas. I don't honestly understand the difference, but there is one). Anyway, the letters to Father Frost (from all ages) are decorated with drawings. All were quite good, many creative, and some excellent. I wish I could take some pictures, but they are forbidden.

We got to go to the pre-school (kindergarten) class where V attends. It too is very small, perhaps 12' x 12'. There are 4 rows of 4 desks with a passage down the middle. The desks are pushed together so there is just enough room to slide in.

At the same time, the room was neat and had plenty of books, maps, etc. though it looks like the material is old. But let's face it, not much really changes from year to year at that level.

Nancy did more mime, and the boys showed us their skills some more.

We decided to try to do more quiet things as well as we could to see how V would react. Honestly, at the beginning I was more worried as he was rolling around and making noise, and being very squirmy.

I brought "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (probably my favorite book) to read to them. We decided it would best if I paraphrased the book (since the rhymes wouldn't translate anyway) and Natasha would translate.

So I would say things like, "The Grinch was a very mean guy who didn't want children to have fun at Christmas...When the Who's started singing he would cover his ears because he hated to hear them having a good time". Then Natasha would translate. I have no idea what she said, but it was usually about 2-3x longer than what I said. (Yes, I did get a bit choked up while reading this. Read Nancy's post for that).

Anyway, they seemed to be enjoying it (R definitely was). But about halfway through V began laying down on his desk and rolling around. I guess the story was too long for him. We decided we could not let him disrupt and so stopped the story until he could sit. After a staring contest, we decided he would have to go to his room if he could not listen. Then he wouldn't hear the rest while we read to R (who sat perfectly still the whole time). He sat pretty still after that, so we were pretty proud of ourselves.

One of the supervisors (women who are not teachers but handle most other activities) came in and said we could ask her questions. We barraged her with questions about his schoolwork, behavior, activities with friends, etc. She said he was a pretty good student, probably about average. He likes to stay active but is good with completing tasks when assigned. He also encourages others to help as well. She mainly emphasized he was a very good boy. And I must say that watching him with the supervisors and watching his behavior when he was packing to leave always bore that out.

We asked several questions about his size, and she said he was on the small side of average for the kids they see. That gave us a lot of comfort.

We finally introduced the boys to Candyland. It is a great game for little kids as it is very simple and colorful and needs no directions. And we brought a few pieces of candy for the winner. We play Candyland for blood in our house. Seriously. There is a lot of trash talk the whole game. Somehow, since Claire was very small, I always ended up losing in this completely random game. But that has become a source of fun for us.

The boys caught on quickly and followed the rules well. As always, I ended up at the back of the pack. V won, with R close behind. They got extremely excited (in a good way) as they got closer to the Candy Castle (the finish line). It was pretty cool.

Soon after, we had to pack up. More hugs and "Da svedaniyas" and we were off again.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was about 80-85% positive after Day 1. On the first half of Day 2 I was a bit lower as I was worried about V's behavior. But seeing how he responded to some light discipline made me feel even better. But I was still not sure. (Nancy was feeling positive too, but was less sure than I the whole time, but I will let her comment on that.) After all, it was only 2 days. But I definitely was feeling pretty good about these kids.

Claire wanted to go shopping since she and Colin had been cooped up for 2 days at the flat (since they could not yet meet the boys). We went to a small mall in town, but it was only open for a few more minutes. And like most shopping in Ukraine I think, seemed to consist only of black high heel boots and women's underwear (not at the same place of course. It's not that kind of mall). We left soon and tried to find a restaurant.





After about half an hour of ducking in and out of the cold, we finally found a restaurant ("X. O" I have no idea what that means, but that was the name). Quite good, and we all ate for about $50. Not bad for a full service meal for 4. I had some amzing pork with mushrooms and cheese.

It turns out pork is very popular in Ukraine (another sign I was in the right place). Apparently Ukraine has been attacked by Turks many times in the past. Each time, they would loot all the gold, silver, animals, etc. But they would always leave the pigs since the Muslims consider them unclean. But as Mom would say, "That just means there's more for me". So pork became a traditional meal. They do a great job with it.

Claire was pretty excited to find out that the restaurant had a "squat toilet". 'Nuff said.


As Nancy mentioned earlier, we watched Patrick Stewart's version of "A Christmas Carol" on DVD (we brought all our Christmas DVDs). Hearing Jacob Marley talk about "Mankind was my business", and The Ghost of Christmas Past speak of brought so much joy to his workers for just a few pounds was really getting to me. Then as we saw young Ebeneezer Scrooge let his fiance leave him while old Scrooge (in ghost form) was telling him not to be afraid and not to let her go was getting to me.

God speaks to us in many ways. I suddenly realized that I wanted these boys to come home. I had no more doubt. I told Nancy, and she agreed. We were ready to let the Director know.

More on that in Day 3.

[FYI, Patrick Stewart was excellent in A Christmas Carol, as he always is. I am a huge fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation and own all 7 seasons on DVD. Highly recommended. He gave an even better performance in his guest shot on "Extras", the Ricky Gervais series on HBO a couple of years ago. [If you don't know, Gervais is the originator of "The Office" on BBC which gave birth to the American version on NBC, which happens to be the best show on TV]. To see Patrick Stewart on "Extras", see Episode 6 of Season 1. His scene is hilarious, but is not for kids.]